We sat down with Samuel Harris of X Ambassadors to talk about the 10-year anniversary re-release of VHS(X), songwriting, self-kindness, and life in Ithaca. Ahead of their hometown shows at the State Theatre in Ithaca on September 19th and 20th, here’s what he had to say.
315 Music: Congratulations on the new record and the new tour. What are you most excited for about the reworking of VHS(X) as well as getting to play it live for your fans?
Samuel Harris: This was an oppurtunity to interact with a thing that has been looming so large over our career the last ten years. In a way, that recontextualizes it. It makes it feel more like who we are now as grown men. When we made this I was 26 and I don’t coniseder myself a full grown-up yet, but I guess I am. Life has changed in so many ways since we made this record, and for me to be able to look at this material again and say what is the 36 year-old version of who I am now, production-wise.
It was really cool to be able to do this, and now I am so excited to share that experience with our fans, knowing they have also changed and grown over these last ten years. I think it will be interestingfor us to see them interact with these new songs in a new way.
315 Music: It’s fun to think about how Bob Dylan rearanged so many classics over the years and folks loved the new ones, but some were like, “Play it the old way.” My Morning Jacket is doing a tour now of their record Z to celebrate 20 years and when they did their first record from 1999, live in 2019, it’s incredible to see the new depths they took it. That change is so powerful.
SH: I think sometimes beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I can’t force someone to like these new versions, but I promise it is true to who I am now. As artists and musicians you have to evolve constantly, and this is something I battle with mentally and know it will last the rest of my careeer.
I am consistently reinhabitating music I have made 10 years ago, in ten more years, it will be 20. Music is different like that. It’s not like DeNiro is playing Travis Bickle again in Taxi Driver, like maybe they do a sequel but he’s dead so that doesn’t make sense, hahaha. It’s not like Picasso is painting his greatest hits, so mucic is the only art form you are constantly going back and recontextualing what you made in the past, but by being your present version of yourself. Or else, if you aren’t feeling it, the audience will not be feeling it.
315 Music: Looking back forces you to see how much you have grown, do you believe that?
SH: It’s a crash course in being kind to yourself. Honestly, I listened back to the whole record the day before we started recording this new version. I was mortified. I was like I am a shitty song writer, I cannot beliecve that people actually liked this, I suck and want to bury my head in the sand somewhere. Then on further reflection, I say, “Look at this earnest young man you were at 26, trying something.” Maybe I was trying more outfits on that didn’t fit me. When I think about my future kids, I would rather them try a million things and fail then not try at all. It was a crash course and I was able to get back on track. I held my younger self and learned how to honor him.
315 Music: What do you feel is the importance of live music — to you, the fans’ experience, your overarcing career, and the grand scheme of life?
SH: I know it’s something we are all grappling with. I’ll take the last part first and I have been thinking a lot about how AI is chaninging multimedia and the way we look at songs, video and with just how easy it is to create incredible content at such a large frequency. I feel like it’s making the real life experiences, imperfect experiences more valauable.
Of course I can send someone a video of me as Godzilla destroying a city and it will blow your mind, and I could do that in five seconds. That is going to be so taken for granted, so that the in-person experiences will draw more people. I hope. With our live show, we have been going backwards. Our stage production has been stripped back a lot. Partly because of necessity and costs of tours, but I feel more scrappy taking the tech away more. There is something about the air moving onstage and working with our sound tech…. for example, we had monitors, then in-ear monitors and now we are trying to create and interact with raw feeling that will make the experiencefor everyone real. Something we can hold onto.
315 Music: I hope that live music is something the internet can never kill. How do you make your lyrics evoke the pain of existence and religion and move that into rymthmic hymnals that are so incredibly moving and catchy as a songwriter?
SH: It’s funny. I am not religious as all, I am very spirtual. I am Jewish but not practiiiving. As a kid, though, I was obsessed with Christianity and the cross. I saw Boondock Saints and thought that was so cool. I then really got into gospel music and the Staples Singers and Mahlia Jackson, and those old blues singers got into me early. There is somehting about this unwavering faith and devotion that I envy and that i wish I had more of. I think I am trying to find that in the music and within the lyrics. People ask me if I am a practicing Christian and I am like, “No, I’m an agnostic Jew,” hahah. There is something about that unwavering faith in the unknown though that I am drawn too.
315 Music: Amazing answers. So a few fun ones to end with: What is your favorite comfort food on the road? If you could teleleport to any musical moment in history, where would you go? Lastly, we would like to know your favorite hike in Ithaca?
SH: First answer. Back of Tostitos. I love Tostitos, plain restaurant-style, no salsa, just plain. Secondly, I would want to pop into the world of music in 600 years from now and hear what is on the radio then. Best hike: Taughannock Falls.
315 Music: Gorgeous they say. thank you so much for your time and good luck on the road and with the new record.
VHS(X) reworks the songs that fans know and love in a way that feels fresh and inspired; it captures the magic of that time period in a whole new way. It’ll be out on August 29th and you can check out recent release “Unsteady (Rerecorded)”
For more tour dates, visit their website here.
